Sam Travers' expressive oil paintings explore the emotional experience of the Wiltshire landscape rather than its physical description. While he once travelled to paint dramatic locations en plein air, the Covid pandemic prompted a shift in his practice, narrowing his focus to the fields surrounding his home. What began as a necessity became a lasting source of inspiration, revealing the richness and subtle beauty of the familiar.

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Working in the distinctive chalklands of Wiltshire, where Salisbury Plain meets the edge of the Cotswolds, Travers is inspired by a landscape of open skies, changing seasons and unique flora. Rather than documenting the geography of a place, his paintings capture its atmosphere, light and mood. Colour is often the starting point, whether found in the contrast between land and sky or in the quiet presence of a gatepost within the landscape.

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Beginning with charcoal sketches made outdoors, Travers develops his paintings in the studio using thick impasto oil paint. Squeezing paint directly onto the canvas and mixing colours on the surface, he embraces a process that is physical, instinctive and unpredictable. His energetic brushwork and expressive handling of paint create works that are rooted in observation yet guided by emotion, inviting viewers to experience the landscape through feeling as much as through sight.